Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox have suspended player Jarren Duran a measly two games for directing a hateful gay slur at a fan during a game.
The absurdly small suspension is a slap in the face of the gay community and demonstrates a total failure to understand the power of language and the importance of the particular slur he used.
“In consultation with Major League Baseball, the Red Sox today issued an unpaid two-game suspension to outfielder Jarren Duran beginning with tonight’s game against the Texas Rangers,” the Red Sox said in a statement.
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The team added that his salary for those two games will be instead sent to PFLAG.
If Duran had called someone the N-word, there is no way on earth his initial suspension would be just two games.
No way.
Major League Soccer has established a three-game-suspension standard for players who use anti-gay hate speech. That’s almost 9% of the season.
This ridiculously short suspension of Duran by MLB and the Red Sox? 1% of the season. Two games in an MLB season is essentially zero. Over the last five seasons, 80% of the division titles were won by more than two games.
The Red Sox are currently three games out of the final American League wild card spot.
All of this takes place just days after the untimely death of Billy Bean.
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Jarren Duran of the Red Sox just called a fan the anti-gay F slur, days after the death of Billy Bean
Jarren Duran called a fan the worst anti-gay slur in his vocabulary. MLB should suspend him for 20 games, and the MLBPA should agree.
By Cyd Zeigler | August 11, 2024
Bean was a diversity officer with Major League Baseball, having been only the second former MLB player to come out publicly as gay. He spent most of the last 10 years of his life inside the front office of MLB attending Pride Nights at ballparks and talking with players and teams about LGBTQ inclusion.
He was an advocate of working with and educating people about homophobia and anti-gay language. It was an important focus of his work. Bean’s story as a closeted gay MLB player — missing his partner’s funeral in the 1990s so the San Diego Padres didn’t know he was gay — was heartbreaking. It helped build bridges and understanding.
Yet beyond “education,” actions also need consequences. While the person may need to build their understanding, suspensions send powerful messages to everyone else in the league that language like that will never be tolerated.
Yet a ridiculously small suspension sends the opposite message. It tells players that the league doesn’t view behavior like this that seriously. “Boys will be boys.”
The toughest part of this situation is the context. He didn’t just drop the slur casually. He directed it at another person with anger. He intended to use homophobia as a weapon.
Duran doesn’t need a bunch of education on this. He grew up in Corona, Calif., halfway between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. He went to Long Beach State in the Los Angeles area.
He knew what that word meant. And he consciously chose to use it.
He doesn’t need a bunch of education. He needs consequences. Unfortunately, MLB chose to give him a mild slap on the wrist.
A suspension comparable to the three-game suspension that’s become standard in Major League Soccer would be a 15-game suspension in MLB.
He should have gotten at least that.
Sadly, with the death of Bean, we can’t be sure where MLB’s practices around homophobia and language like this will end up. They’re off to a poor start.
